Great Ormond Street Hospital Morgan Stanley Clinical Building
Photo: Nicola Evans, WSP Group
THE PASSIV TREATMENT HELMUT G WALTHER HOSPITAL, BAVARIA, GERMANY
WSP Germany is delivering one of the country’s first “green” hospitals, a replacement for the Helmut G Walther Hospital in Bavaria Lichtenfels. Designed by Munich architect Schuster Pechtold Schmidt, it consists of two square buildings connected by a central lobby and a treatment and examination area. Construction is due to begin later this year, completing in 2016.
Project manager Wolfgang Grossmann believes this is a very special project: “We have a unique opportunity to create a new model in clinical buildings, achieving high standards in ecology, cost efficiency and quality right from the planning phase.”
A committee of architects, landscape architects, civil engineers, building physicists, ecologists and medical experts was convened to discuss every element of the building’s design and delivery, alongside the building owners and the planning authorities. The result was a 100-page action plan, at the cutting edge of research and technology. “We’ve taken a holistic approach to the entire process,” says Grossmann. “Sustainability starts with the management of the construction site, and continues during the operational phase of the hospital. For example, we involved a hospital hygienist who advised us on the most environmentally friendly disinfectants and how to minimise the amount of disposable material. This has often required completely new solutions.”
Aiming for the highest, “gold” rating under the German Sustainable Building Council’s system, the hospital will use far fewer resources than conventional buildings. “The goal was to meet the PassivHaus standard,” says Grossmann. “So we were aiming for as close as possible to energy self-sufficiency. Due to the high energy requirements of medical devices, that can’t be fully implemented, but during times of surplus the hospital
can export the energy it produces back to the grid.”
The building has high levels of insulation and triple-glazed windows, of course, but the walls also feature advanced “phase change materials” that store heat energy and release it slowly to maintain a comfortable temperature in treatment areas.
The hospital will generate its own energy from a range of sources, including geothermal energy for heating and cooling and a biomass boiler to produce steam for sterilisers, ventilation systems and the kitchen. Photovoltaics will play a prominent role, with panels on the roofs and in the facades, while the buildings are oriented to receive maximum sunlight.
The facade also makes the best possible use of natural light. Integrated, movable shading will shield glare while directing sunlight to the rear of patients’ rooms. Elsewhere, the hospital will use energy-efficient LED and OLED lights, with occupancy sensors to turn them off when rooms are unused.
It is these “smart” elements of the building that present the greatest challenge, says Grossman. “A decentralised energy supply requires complex measurement and control systems to carry out targeted peak load management – shutting down energy-intensive facilities automatically, for example – and to ensure the intelligent use of waste heat. Because WSP has many decades of experience, we are perfectly suited to coordinating the various disciplines and areas of responsibility.”
wolfgang.grossmann@
wspgroup.de SOLUTIONS 07
Image courtesy of mw2 / Schuster Pechtold Schmidt Architekten
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